This is probably a question for another topic, and I may be missing something, but Ren’py has been distributing python apps for years without making anyone install any external library. Isn’t this something you can leverage ? (Not that I believe that python can change anything to the future of anything anyway)
Ren’Py currently runs on Python 2. Unfortunately, even though the code apparently exists to put in significant Python 2 programs into Ren’Py, I’m not yet good enough at Ren’Py to actually make the process work.
(It’s completely useless for native Python 3 until a version is released that is based on Python 3. That’s been in development for a long time - it will be called Re’Py 8 when it’s done - but for now, anything on the current version of Python would have to be downgraded before attempting to put it into Ren’Py.)
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@gandalf As someone with 25+ years of software development experience, some who has flirted too long with custom engine development (Storytron), and someone who just wrote their first interactive fiction game for Parsercomp 2021, I would recommend that you take another look at Inform 7 (you did mention “a 2022 version of the Infocom games” in your original post).
I think you will find Inform 7 is a very powerful programming language that will provide you with a great deal of technical satisfaction. While its natural language syntax and grammar can seem strange at first you will find the familiar data and control structures like If/Then/Else, While/EndWhile, etc. underneath.
My own experience with Inform 7 over the past year and a half has provided me with a variety of technical challenges and much personal satisfaction.
While rooted in the parser-based world there are numerous Inform 7 extensions, written in the language itself, that let you modify how it looks, behaves, and operates. I am currently working with Eric Eve’s Conversation Framework and Jon Ingold’s Flexible Windows (see screenshot below).
I’m so captivated by Inform 7 right now that I’m considering one of two side projects—an updated version of @Ron_Newcomb’s Inform 7 For Programmers or a refactor of @DavidC’s FyreVM (haven’t decided which yet or reached out to either individual).
The upcoming open source of Inform 7 also offers the exciting possibility of using Inform 7 as a narrative engine. I find that idea very exciting.
Of course, for a software developer, the allure of writing your own game engine is a powerful one (I still feel it myself from time to time). If you decide to go that route I wish you the best of luck.
But I hope you give Inform 7 another look.
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Thanks Bill, Good advice, I will definitely check it out. I’m always open to suggestions, because programming is ‘like a box of chocolates’ !!
YES !! You are right ! (for me) Inform 7 is a perfect place to start. I spent a few hours reviewing some tutorials. Most tutorials say that you don’t have to know programming to use it. But of course, you are programming it, just using a high level lang (close to english), but the structures are the same
For example: Bedroom is a room. (same as string bedroom), the instructions are sequential, and can obviously follow the basic structured programming concept of 1 input, 1 output per routine,etc.
. . .Anyway for me, it does two important things, lets me get right into the story, and keeps me thinking logically. (not easy for a 75 yr old 
)